posted
April 21, 2008 11:33 AM
Well,
this is my first post here.
Found this forum after a Google search looking for a AMIBCP
version that was able to open and edit the 4CoreDual-SataII
ROM BIOS.
I was looking for the tool because i was in the need to find
a way to disable ACPI support or APIC support or to add E8400
support to the latest available 4CoreDual-SataII BIOS.
This mobo doesn't support any CPU with FSB > 1066 so no
E6x50 neither E8XXX are supported now and in future either.
Anyhow i bought and mounted Core2 Duo E8400 (ES) CPU on the
mobo thinking that the worse i can espect was an underclocked
CPU.
Actually the PC booted fine, but in a short time i found myself
fighting to get a WindowsXP installation to complete; what
i mean is that every installation attempt hangs the PC soon
after the first reboot after the text based setup phase.
After hours of Trial&Error attempts i found that the only
way to get WindowsXP ( Vista as well ) installation to complete
was to force the O.S. to use "Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface (ACPI) PC" HAL; all other HAL get the OS hang while
loading.
So now WindowsXP is installed and running smoothly and all
the onboard device drivers are installed and properly running...
the E8400 CPU is, obviously, underclocked.
So... what's the main problem?
The "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC"
HAL isn't able to handle Multiprocessor ( Multi core ) HW
and therefore, even if WindowsXP detects and list two CPUs
on the device manager tree, the OS is unable to use the second
core!
The only difference i found from the working "ACPI PC" HAL
and the rest of all the other "not working" HAL was that the
former isn't APIC aware ( Advanced Programmable Interrupt
Controller ), while the latter are.
My guess was that if i was able to disable APIC by BIOS i
could get a Multiprocessor HAL to work.
Got AMIBCP ver. 3.13 and MMTool ver. 3.19 from this site and
after a brief look at the tools menus and tabs i found that
i could be able to add E8400 CPU microcode to the BIOS.
It wasn't what i was minded to do ( find a way to disable
APIC or ACPI ) but it worth a try.
So i downloaded the 4Core1333-eSATA2 BIOS from Asrock and
extracted the E8400 microcode
Then loaded the 4CoreDual BIOS and replaced ( got error if
tring to "insert" ) two microcode slots with the ones previously
extracted
4CoreDual-Sata2 Bios ver. 1.90a - BEFORE
4CoreDual-Sata2 Bios ver. 1.90a - AFTER
Flashed the new BIOS on the mobo and, after had take a long
breath, rebooted...
Wow! i've done it!
The POST was OK and the CPU microcode loaded!
Checked with CodeUp
BEFORE
AFTER
Unfortunately that wasn't enought to get any WindowsXP
Multiprocessor HAL working!
So i'm still at the starting point.
However i've found the string "ACPI Aware O/S Enable/Disable
ACPI Support for Operating System." inside the Multi Language
BIOS module (#21)...
Does it mean that the BIOS provide user interface hidden ACPI
support switch?
posted
April 21, 2008 12:01 PM
Perhaps
offtopic, Poly can move cut-paste with this.
There are several kernels avaliable for post w2k OSes. Even
though you've succesfully added uCode, the ACPI, and quite
possibly the SMbios isn't impressed. I recommend to try and
use the MPS instead of the ACPI kernel. This is a trick that
i've used back in the BP6 days of P3 upgrade.
posted
April 21, 2008 01:06 PM
Well...
my post was first published on the related motherboard topic...
then Polygon told me to copy the post to this topic
to have more chance for help.
I agree that i could be a little off-topic here as at now
my main problem is no more to add CPU microcode to the BIOS
but to find a way to add ACPI or APIC support switch to the
BIOS setup UI.
Original motherboard BIOS doesn't show any option to turn
off ACPI support and therefore MPS HAL doesn't work either.
However, as you pointed, my attempt to add E8400 support to
the BIOS could be far to be complete; so if there is someone
that is able to do the further needed steps or to give me
some advise on the issue i will appreciate it a lot.
Unfortunately my programming knowledge isn't very deep ( even
if assembler is not completely unknown to me ), and i do not
know anything about BIOS internal structure... so if anyone
has the willing to drive me some steps ahead, please don't
expect too much from me!
posted
April 21, 2008 02:43 PM
Also
for reverse engineering/bugfix purposes it might be wise to
download a linux (live) distro and after booting look into
the /var/log/messages or bootlog , those things. Especially
the BIOS handoff to the OS will prove to be interesting and
show where, if anything, goes wrong.
quote:
Originally
sent by Polygon:
Start reading at the top of the BIOS Workshop. There is
no other way to learn... :}
Honestly,
from one of the most known "Guru" of the BIOS mod i would
like to have received a reply like this: "Let me see if it is possible..."
and then... "Yes it is... follow the tut you can find here..."
or "No it is not, you are out of luck".
I'm looking for help for simple tasks here, just to try to
solve my issue;
I'm not minded to become a BIOS mod "Guru".
I think that, if someone asks me "How do i change my Network
interface IP address in WindowsXP?" , it would not be
a fair reply if i say "Start reading this 400 pages Japanes
language manual on how to become a Windows 2003 Server System
Administrator".
Before to post asking for help i *have* read *a lot*
of foreign language amazing posts here on how to mod
a Bios, and it had costs to me many hours and a lot of efforts
on translating and understanding ( a lot of thing i read are
just *not* understandable for an average PC user, but still
hard to understand for a experienced PC user with some programming
knowledge as i am ).
However i think i was just wasting my time because:
1st
- a lot of what i read is relative to AWARD Bios... but
i don't know if it applies to AMI also
2nd
- a lot of what i read is relative to how to add a UI
menu item... but i don't know if there is any BIOS code
that take care of the newly created item.
3nd
- I'm not able, nor i will never be, to *write* and add
code to the BIOS... my goal is just to unhide the ACPI
switch UI option... *if* it is there and is just hidden
4th
- I read a post where Polygon states that there
are NOT UI hidden option, most of the "unused" labels
inside the Multilanguage module are "just" pieces of "generic"
UI menu but without any BIOS code linked to them.
So, please, *who* *have* *the* *knowledge*, if you take care
of people coming here for help, take a look at my BIOS issue
and tell me what you think.
I would switch from a "help request" to a "Mod request" if
the related Motherboard Topic wasn't closed yesterday by the
Forum Administator.
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Damn 9500 Phenom!